Rebecca De Mornay played the call girl Lana in Risky Business, where she meets the high school senior, played by Tom Cruise. The 1983 film is considered to be the breakout role of Cruise, and he shared some pretty steamy scenes with De Mornay. Interestingly, the two began an affair on set, despite De Mornay being in a relationship with actor Harry Dean Stanton at the time.
The affair didn’t last long even after De Mornay broke things off with Stanton. Soon after her Risky Business success, things started falling apart for the actress including her relationship with Cruise. She took the role in the romcom The Slugger’s Wife, which turned out to be a disaster.
Rebecca De Mornay’s Life Fell Apart After Risky Business and Tom Cruise Affair
Risky Business is not only one of the best high school and teen films of all time but it was also credited with bringing Tom Cruise to Hollywood’s forefront. While the film also turned out to be a milestone in lead actress Rebecca De Mornay’s career, she couldn’t capitalize on the success of the film.
She famously began an affair with the Mission: Impossible actor on the set of the film. De Mornay recalled the “Cinderella moment” in her career, sharing that she was in love with Cruise and their film was also a smashing hit at that point. While she expected things to go on smoothly forever, she realized it was not the case at all. De Mornay shared with The Independent:
We were so in love, and the movie was a big smash, and I remember just feeling – wow, it’s just gonna go on like this! Not the case! Not at all.
De Mornay went on to do the romcom film The Slugger’s Wife, alongside Michael O’Keefe. The film was a complete disaster as she recalled. She even remembered that a tornado had hit the set of the film. She also ended her two-year relationship with Cruise. When her romcom hit the theaters, critics bashed her performance in the film.
De Mornay shared that she had no plans during this time, except that she didn’t want to get typecast in the ‘sexy woman’ role. She also shared that her mother died three years after the success of Risky Business. De Mornay told The Independent:
I had no real plan for what to do next. I knew I didn’t want to be typecast as ‘the sexy woman’, but it was all so difficult to navigate. Then, three years after Risky Business, my mother died. I was suddenly kind of orphaned, and everything after that just felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants.
De Mornay went on to spend some time in a Zen Buddhist monastery. The brief spiritual journey taught her that much of her career was out of her control. She realized that she couldn’t base her self-worth on how her roles turned out to be.
Rebecca De Mornay Explained Why Things Didn’t Work Out Between Her And Tom Cruise
Rebecca De Mornay and Tom Cruise shared impeccable chemistry during Risky Business and some of the cast saw the affair coming from a mile away. According to their co-star Curtis Armstrong, their relationship was considerably delayed due to De Mornay’s then-boyfriend Harry Dean Stanton (via THR).
De Mornay split from Stanton eventually and pursued her relationship with Cruise. In a 2023 interview with The Wrap, she opened up about why her relationship with Tom Cruise didn’t work. She shared that she was more complicated, mysterious, and innate than Cruise, who was a rising star in Hollywood. She shared with The Wrap:
It was personally jarring and thrilling and discombobulating to have become famous so quickly. I was a more complicated, mysterious presence, innately than Tom. His presence is more like, I would say, a major chord, [thinking] in music terms, and I’m more of a minor chord…America really, really loves the major chords.
Cruise’s performance earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. The critically and commercially acclaimed film is now available for rent on AppleTV.
